Muriel Newman
Thursday 14th Oct 1999
Social Welfare - Media Release
New Zealanders are hard workers and employment is central to our society.
It underpins stable
families and strong communities. Unemployment saps potential and its
human cost is too
high; in the long term unemployment can be a factor in dependency,
family breakdown and
crime.
ACT says New Zealand’s unemployment rate is unnecessarily high. We understand
that the
majority of jobs in New Zealand are created by small and medium-sized
businesses. To reduce
unemployment we need policies that enable these businesses to create
jobs. ACT aims to
remove barriers to work and help people get off benefits and into the
real jobs they need. A
hand up, not a hand out.
ACT’s goals are:
* Through a fully-funded Welfare to Work scheme that
involves community-based providers,
together with ACT’s proposals to create
new jobs, to lower the number of registered
unemployed by a third within three years.
* To have the lowest unemployment
rate in the OECD.
Comments related to this item :
We really recommend to Mrs Newman to visit
the OECD web site, dig into the statistics to gain
at least some basic knowledge before talking about
these subjects and distributing unrealistic nonsense.
Such a goal is only a dream and wishful
thinking. This might impress some potential
voters - and some might even believe it - on the
other hand : if we just believe all the nonsense
we
hear these days then we don't deserve better.
We all hear from time to time how New Zealand fares in the
so-called OECD statistics. Honestly - do YOU know what
OECD stands for ? Please have a look at the following web
site to find out what it is all about :
the OECD - what it is, purpose, statistics and much more ...
OECD Gross Domestic Product statistics ( GDP )
In its most simple definition GDP is the total money value of
all final goods and services produced in an economy over a
one-year period.
From these statistics we see that New Zealand - after Korea,
Japan and the Czech Republic - is in the fourth worse position
with a decline of 0.8 % GDP 1998 compared to 1997 (based on
1990 price levels/exchange rates). There are of course reasons
for this - but there are certainly also reasons why Ireland has
scored an increase of 10.4 %, Australia of 5.1 % etc. The GDP
is not the only important figure to sum up an economy and any
interpretation has to go a little bit further. The absolute figures
have also to be seen in context with the size of the country and
other economic indicators, export markets etc.
OECD Statistics: Main Economic Indicators
Print out some of the pages (with the easy to understand graphics)
and find out how New Zealand fares compared with other OECD
countries (Ireland is a good example to make us all think - have a
look at their unemployment figures).
It is not too difficult to read and to interpret these basic statistics.
We recommend to the ACT Party and esp. Mrs Newman to visit
the OECD website(s) to get informed - at least about the basics !
End of comments
ACT believes:
* Those who can work should work – welfare should
be a springboard back to work.
* Government policy must assist those on welfare
to overcome any barriers to work.
* High taxation and government regulation cost jobs.
ACT will:
* Break the cycle of dependency.
* Adapt for New Zealand the best
initiatives from hand-up welfare
programmes in other
countries such as the US and Britain.
* Ensure that assistance is tailored to meet the
needs of individuals and move from the
“one-size- fits-all” welfare state.
* Support community-based welfare programmes.
* Make it easier for businesses to hire more staff.
* Cut taxes, government red tape and bureaucracy.